Method for producing optical fiber preform, and optical fiber preform

ABSTRACT

A production method and others according to the present embodiment are provided with a structure for effectively preventing occurrence of accidental spiking during drawing of a preform. In order to control the residual He-concentration in the center part of the preform, a transparent glass rod that has a predetermined outer diameter and is already sintered but is not doped with an alkali metal yet is annealed in in the atmosphere not containing He gas for an annealing time determined by referring to result data in which the relationship between the annealing time and the residual He-concentration is previously recorded for each outer diameter. In the result data, actually measured data of the residual He-concentration in a produced optical fiber preform and the annealing time are accumulated as annealing treatment results.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for producing an optical fiberpreform doped with an alkali metal, and an optical fiber preformproduced by the method.

BACKGROUND ART

One method for producing an optical fiber preform has conventionallyincluded subjecting a glass raw material to a flame hydrolysis reaction,depositing (soot deposition) resulting glass fine particles on arotating starting material, and sintering an obtained porous preform(vitrification to a transparent glass). The sintering step is typicallyperformed in a He atmosphere. This is because the transparent glass canbe easily obtained when sintered in a gas atmosphere having highsolubility in glass. Specifically, remaining bubbles exist in theobtained transparent glass in an Ar or N₂ atmosphere, but it has beenfound that a transparent glass free of remaining bubbles can be obtainedeasily in a highly soluble He atmosphere. For this reason, the porouspreform is generally sintered in the He atmosphere.

The optical fiber preform including the glass portion sintered asdescribed above is spun into thin optical fiber having an outer diameterof 100 μm to 200 μm in the drawing step. In the drawing step, aphenomenon (hereinafter referred to as “spiking”) in which the outerdiameter (glass diameter) of the drawn optical fiber fluctuates by 1 ormore may occur suddenly. It is known that this phenomenon is caused bybubbles generated in the optical fiber preform and mainly containing He(99% or more). Patent Documents 1 to 3 describe methods for reducing aresidual He-concentration in the transparent glass after sintering.

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H2-9727

Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H7-157327

Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-209139

Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-537210

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

As a result of examining the conventional methods for producing theoptical fiber preform, the inventors have found the following problems.Specifically, the conventional techniques described in Patent Documents1 to 3 described above perform heat treatment in an atmosphere otherthan the He gas atmosphere, or in a vacuum, on a transparent glass aftersintering, thereby adjusting (or preventing the occurrence of spikingduring the drawing of the preform) the initial He-concentration (theresidual He-concentration during vitrification to provide a transparentglass by sintering). However, in a glass containing an alkali metal, itis necessary to further reduce the residual He-concentration. Note that,regarding the optical fiber preform doped with an alkali metal, PatentDocument 4 describes heating the target glass to 1,500° C. or higher todiffuse the alkali metal rapidly in the glass to prevent denitrificationdue to glass crystallization.

However, none of the above Patent Documents 1 to 4 recites appropriateheating time (annealing time) for effectively preventing generation ofbubbles of the He gas. In particular, the heating time largely dependson the outer diameter of the target glass, but it is currentlyunfeasible to set appropriate heating time for the size of the glass tobe heated. Therefore, performing the heat treatment for long timewithout any ground in the producing step of the optical fiber preformcontaining the alkali metal would unnecessarily extend a total producingtime of the optical fiber preform. Further, if the adjustment ofHe-concentration based on the initial He-concentration (insufficientreduction of the He-concentration) as in the prior art technique isapplied to the production of optical fiber preforms containing thealkali metal, excessive treatment time is required for drawing thepreform to prevent the occurrence of spiking (the drawing speed needs tobe lowered to prevent the occurrence of spiking). As a result, such asituation may cause a factor for the decrease in the production yield ofthe optical fiber preform containing the alkali metal.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-describedproblems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide amethod for producing an optical fiber preform including an alkali metaland having a structure for effectively preventing the occurrence ofaccidental spiking during the drawing of the preform, and an opticalfiber preform obtained by the method.

Solution to Problem

In order to solve the above-described problem, a method for producing anoptical fiber preform according to the present embodiment controls aresidual He-concentration that causes the occurrence of spiking (aphenomenon in which fluctuations in the outer diameter of 1 μm or moreoccur suddenly in the optical fiber obtained by drawing the preform) byannealing, in the atmosphere not containing He gas, a transparent glassrod having a predetermined outer diameter for the annealing timedetermined by referring to result data in which a relationship betweenannealing time and the residual He-concentration is recorded, thetransparent glass rod to be annealed being one after sintering andbefore doping an alkali metal. Further, to the result data, actuallymeasured data of the residual He-concentration in a produced opticalfiber preform and annealing time are accumulated as annealing treatmentresults of the transparent glass rod.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

As described above, according to the method for producing the opticalfiber preform according to the present embodiment, the optical fiberpreform capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of accidentalspiking during drawing of the preform is obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining a method for producing an opticalfiber preform according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a soot deposition step.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a dehydration and sintering step.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an annealing treatment step.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an alkali metal doping step.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining representative steps of the corepreform producing step from the alkali metal doping step to thecompletion of the core preform.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a measuring step.

FIG. 8 is an example of a refractive index distribution of the opticalfiber preform.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an example of result data.

FIG. 10 is a graph plotting a relationship between annealing time andresidual He-concentration [weight ppm] of a center rod having an outerdiameter of 30 mm.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a drawing step.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS [Description of Embodiment of Invention ofPresent Application]

First, the contents of the embodiments of the invention of the presentapplication will be recited and described individually.

(1) One aspect of the present embodiment relates to a method forproducing an optical fiber preform including a core preform and acladding portion provided on an outer periphery of the core preform. Thecore preform is constituted by one or more glass regions each comprisedof silica glass as a main component, and includes a center rod having analkali metal doped region formed along a longitudinal direction. Thecladding portion is also constituted by one or more glass regions eachcomprised of silica glass as a main component. In this aspect, theproduction method at least includes a core preform producing step, acladding portion producing step, and a measuring step. The core preformproducing step at least includes a rod producing step, doping step, anda diameter expanding step. In the rod producing step, a transparentglass rod configured to be a center rod and having a predetermined outerdiameter is produced by performing dehydration treatment in anatmosphere containing a Cl (chlorine) gas on a porous rod in which glassparticles are deposited along a longitudinal direction, and sinteringtreatment on the porous rod after the dehydration in an atmospherecontaining He (helium) gas. In the doping step, an alkali metal is dopedinto the transparent glass rod along the longitudinal direction of thetransparent glass rod. In the diameter expanding step, a peripheral coreportion is formed on the outer periphery of the center rod (includingthe alkali metal doped region) obtained through the doping step by, forexample, rod-in collapsing using the obtained center rod. In thecladding portion forming step, a cladding portion constituted by one ormore glass regions is formed on the outer periphery of the core preformobtained by the core preform producing step. Further, in the measuringstep, a residual He-concentration in the region corresponding to theabove-described center rod is measured in a sample preform cut out fromthe optical fiber preform obtained by the cladding portion producingstep.

(2) More specifically, in one aspect of the present embodiment, the corepreform producing step includes determining annealing time performedbetween the rod producing step and the doping step, and a firstannealing treatment step. In the annealing time determining step, timetaken for annealing treatment on the transparent glass rod is determinedby referring to result data including a table of theHe-concentration-to-time representing a relationship between theannealing time and the residual He-concentration that depends on thespecific outer diameter of the transparent glass rod. In the firstannealing treatment step, the transparent glass rod is annealed in anatmosphere not containing the He gas, such as N₂ (nitrogen) gas or Ar(argon) gas, for at least the determined annealing time. Meanwhile, inthe measuring step, in addition to measuring the residualHe-concentration in the center region (region corresponding to thecenter rod) in a sample preform, and the update of result data isperformed. Specifically, in the measuring step, the result data isupdated by accumulating the annealing time determined by the annealingtime determining step and the measured residual He-concentration as thetreatment result for each outer diameter of the transparent glass rodannealed in the first annealing treatment step.

(3) As another aspect of the present embodiment, the production methodmay further include a second annealing treatment step for predeterminedtime on the optical fiber preform obtained by the cladding portionproducing step between the cladding portion producing step and themeasuring step in the atmosphere not containing the He gas. In thiscase, the annealing time in the second annealing treatment step may befixed. Further, the annealing time in the first annealing treatment stepis preferably longer than the annealing time in the second annealingtreatment step.

(4) The optical fiber preform according to the present embodiment isobtained by the method for producing the optical fiber preform accordingto the various aspects described above. Specifically, in one aspect, theoptical fiber preform preferably has a maximum value of the residualHe-concentration in the center rod to be adjusted to 0.15 [weight ppm]or less. Typically, the optical fiber preform containing an alkali metalin glass tends to cause glass crystallization (crystallization of aglass region containing an alkali metal) by heating. In particular, ifthere are minute crystal nuclei, bubbles are likely to be generatedstarting from such nuclei. Conventionally, the spiking can besufficiently prevented by adjusting the fluctuations with respect to theinitial He-concentration (the residual He-concentration duringvitrification to provide a transparent glass by sintering), but in theglass containing alkali metal, it is necessary to further reduce theresidual He-concentration. Specifically, in adjusting theHe-concentration on the basis of the initial He-concentration, excessivetreatment time is required for drawing the preform to prevent theoccurrence of spiking (the speed of drawing needs to be lowered toprevent the occurrence of spiking). Therefore, the present embodimentcan achieve stable drawing of the preform in appropriate treatment timeby previously adjusting an absolute amount of residual He-concentrationin the center portion of the preform, to be doped with the alkali metal,to fall within an appropriate range before doping the alkali metal.

(5) Further, in another aspect of the present embodiment, a maximumvalue of a Cl-concentration in the center rod is preferably adjusted to1,000 ppm or less. With a high Cl-concentration, crystallization of theglass region containing the alkali metal is promoted, thus facilitatingthe occurrence of spiking during drawing of the preform. Preferably, toprevent the occurrence of spiking, the Cl-concentration is low and theresidual He-concentration is not more than a predetermined value.Crystallization of the glass region containing the alkali metal becomesparticularly outstanding when the annealing time increases. Therefore,according to the present embodiment, by adjusting both theCl-concentration and the residual He-concentration to low values, thecrystallization of the center portion of the preform containing thealkali metal is effectively prevented.

Note that the aspects described in [Description of Embodiments ofInvention of Present Application] above are applicable to each of theremaining aspects or to all combinations of the remaining aspects.

[Details of Embodiments of Invention of Present Application]

A method for producing an optical fiber preform and specific examples ofthe optical fiber preform according to the invention of the presentapplication will be described in detail below with reference to theaccompanying drawings. The present invention is not limited by theillustrated examples given below and, instead, is defined by the scopeof the appended claims and intended to include whatever changes as wouldbe equivalent to and fall within the scope and spirit of the appendedclaims. Further, in the description of the drawings, the same referencesigns are given to the same elements, and the description thereof willnot be repeated.

An optical fiber preform produced by the method for producing theoptical fiber preform according to the present embodiment is producedaccording to a flowchart illustrated in FIG. 1 , and includes a corepreform and a cladding portion provided on the outer periphery of thecore preform. The core preform is constituted by one or more glassregions each having silica glass as a main component, and includes acenter rod in which an alkali metal doped region is fowled along alongitudinal direction. The cladding portion is also constituted by oneor more glass regions each comprised of silica glass as a maincomponent. The core preform corresponds to a core of the optical fiberobtained by drawing the optical fiber preform, and the cladding portioncorresponds to cladding of the optical fiber (having a lower refractiveindex than the core). Further, FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining amethod for producing an optical fiber preform according to the presentembodiment.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , the method for producing the optical fiberpreform according to the present embodiment at least includes a corepreform producing step, a cladding portion producing step, and ameasuring step. Further, the core preform producing step at leastincludes a rod producing step, a doping step, and a diameter expandingstep. In the rod producing step, a porous rod (soot body) in which glassfine particles are deposited along a longitudinal direction is firstproduced (step ST10: soot deposition step). In the soot deposition stepof step ST10, as illustrated in FIG. 2 , the porous rod is produced byVAD (vapor-phase axial deposition) or OVD (outside vapor deposition).Subsequently, in a heating apparatus illustrated in FIG. 3 , theobtained porous rod is subsequently subjected to dehydration treatmentin an atmosphere containing the Cl gas and, sintering treatment of theporous rod after the dehydration treatment in an atmosphere containingthe He gas (step ST20: a dehydration and sintering step). As a result, atransparent glass rod having an outer diameter R is obtained after thedehydration and sintering step in step ST20.

The produced transparent glass rod having the outer diameter R is oncedisposed in the heating apparatus illustrated in FIG. 4 , and before thedoping step, the transparent glass rod is subjected to a step ofdetermining annealing time (step ST30) and a first annealing treatmentstep (step ST40). The annealing time determining step in step ST30 is astep of adjusting He-concentration of He remaining in the transparentglass rod in the production step described above, and is performed toprevent generation of bubbles due to the He gas causing spiking thataccidentally occurs during the drawing of the optical fiber preform tobe obtained finally (1 μm or more fluctuations of the outer diameteroccurring accidentally in the drawn optical fiber). In the annealingtime determining step, the time taken for the annealing treatment of thetransparent glass rod is determined using result data 700 prepared foreach outer diameter of the transparent glass rod and storingrelationships between the annealing time and the residualHe-concentration (step ST30). Note that the result data 700 includes atable of He-concentration-to-time (theoretical values) indicating therelationship between the annealing time depending on the center rodhaving a specific outer diameter and the residual He-concentration.Further, the relationship (theoretical values) between the annealingtime and the residual He-concentration depending on other outerdiameters can be calculated from existing table data (theoreticalvalues). In the first annealing treatment step, the transparent glassrod is annealed in an atmosphere not containing the He gas, such as anN₂ gas atmosphere, for the determined annealing time (step ST40). By theannealing treatment, concentrations of He and Cl remaining in thetransparent glass rod are lowered. Note that the first annealingtreatment step may be performed in an atmosphere of Ar gas or the like.

Next, the doping step is performed on the annealed transparent glassrod. In the doping step, after the annealed transparent glass rod iselongated, a hole extending along the longitudinal direction is formedin the center region of the transparent glass rod (step ST50).Subsequently, as illustrated in FIG. 5 , an alkali metal such as K(potassium) is doped to the inner peripheral surface of the hole formedin the transparent glass rod by CVD (chemical vapor deposition) (stepST60). Then, a core preform is obtained by rod-in collapsing (stepST70). Note that, in the rod-in collapsing in step ST70, as illustratedin FIG. 6 , the transparent glass rod after step ST60 is collapsed toobtain a center rod (step ST71). Further, to obtain the core preformhaving a desired outer diameter, a peripheral core portion is providedon the outer periphery of the center rod by the rod-in collapsing (stepST72). The rod-in collapsing also includes elongating the integratedglass body until a desired outer diameter is obtained after integratingthe glass rod and a glass tube into which the glass rod is inserted.Further, the peripheral core portion provided on the outer periphery ofthe center rod may be constituted by a plurality of layers, and byperforming the rod-in collapsing of step ST70 plural times (step ST80:diameter expanding treatment), a core preform having a desired outerdiameter is obtained (step ST73).

As described above, the core preform producing step includes steps ST10to ST80, and the cladding portion in which F (fluorine) is doped to theouter periphery of the core preform obtained by the core preformproducing step is formed (step ST90: cladding portion producing step).As illustrated in FIG. 2 , by the cladding portion producing step ofstep 90, fine glass particles are deposited while F is doped to theouter periphery of the core preform by OVD to produce the porous rod.Subsequently, the dehydration and sintering are performed in the heatingapparatus illustrated in FIG. 3 , and the obtained sintered body issubjected to elongation treatment to obtain the optical fiber preformhaving the desired outer diameter. Note that the cladding portionproduced by the cladding portion producing step of step ST90 may beconstituted by a plurality of layers having different refractiveindexes.

After the cladding portion producing step in step ST90, a secondannealing treatment step is performed to adjust the residualHe-concentration in the cladding portion (step ST100), and an opticalfiber preform is obtained. The second annealing treatment may beperformed under certain conditions (e.g., annealing time: 5 hours,annealing temperature: 1,050° C.) regardless of the outer diameter ofthe preform. Note that the lower limit of the annealing temperature ispreferably set in the range of 900° C. to 1,000° C., and the upper limitof the annealing temperature is preferably set in the range of 1,000° C.to 1,100° C. As described above, glass fiber crystallization is likelyto occur in the optical fiber preform containing the alkali metal,particularly in the glass region in the vicinity of the alkali metaldoped region, so that the bubbles of the He gas are more likelygenerated starting from the microcrystal nuclei. Therefore, in the firstannealing treatment, it is necessary to reduce the remainingconcentrations of He and Cl by performing sufficient annealing on thetransparent glass rod before doping the alkali metal. Therefore, theannealing time of the first annealing treatment is set to be longer thanthe annealing time of the second annealing treatment.

Further, in the present embodiment, the optical fiber preform isobtained by the core preform producing step of steps ST10 to ST80including the annealing time determining step (step ST30) and the firstannealing treatment step (step ST40), the cladding portion producingstep of step ST90, and the second annealing treatment step of stepST100, and the optical fiber preform is then subjected to measuring ofthe residual He-concentration and updating of the result data (creatinga table) (step ST110). Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 7 , in themeasuring step ST110, in a sample preform cut out from the obtainedoptical fiber preform in a ring shape, the residual He-concentration isfirst measured in a region corresponding to the above-described centerrod. The residual He is quantified by high-frequency heating-typetemperature-programmed desorption. When quantifying the residual He bythis method, the weight of the sample in the region to be quantified isused, so that unnecessary regions other than the region (center rod)doped with the alkali metal are removed from the sample preform bypretreatment such as cleaving and polishing, thus allowingquantification of the residual He in the center rod. As a result ofinvestigating the residual He in the region corresponding to the centerrod by this method, the maximum value of the He-concentration ispreferably 0.15 [weight ppm] or less to prevent spiking, and theCl-concentration is preferably 1,000 ppm or less to further preventglass crystallization. Further, in the measuring step, in addition tomeasuring the residual He-concentration in the center region (the regioncorresponding to the center rod) in the sample preform, the result datais updated by updating of the result data, that is, by accumulating theannealing time determined by the annealing time determining step and themeasured residual He-concentration, as the treatment results of thetransparent glass rod annealed in the first annealing treatment step(step ST40).

Hereinafter, the operation of each step described above will bedescribed in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 10 .

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the above-described soot depositionstep (the cladding portion producing steps of ST10 and ST90 in the corepreform producing step). As illustrated in FIG. 2 , the soot depositionstep at least includes type A: VAD (vapor-phase axial deposition) andtype B: OVD (outside vapor deposition).

Specifically, in the soot deposition step (type A) by the VAD, a porousbody 220 is formed by a predetermined soot depositing device. The sootdepositing device includes a container having at least an exhaust portand a support mechanism for supporting the porous body 220.Specifically, the support mechanism is provided with a support rod thatcan rotate in a direction indicated by arrow S1, and a starting rod 210for growing the porous body 220 (soot body) is attached to the tip ofthe support rod. Further, in the soot deposition step by the VAD, aburner 230 for depositing the porous body 220 (soot body) is provided,and a desired material gas (e.g., GeCl₄, SiCl₄), combustion gases (H₂and O₂), and a carrier gas such as Ar or He are provided to the burner230 from the gas supply system. The material gas may contain a dopantfor adjusting the refractive index.

During the production of the porous body 220, in the flame of the burner230, glass particles are generated by hydrolysis reaction of thematerial gas supplied from the gas supply system, and these glassparticles are deposited on the lower surface of the starting rod 210.During this time, the support mechanism pulls up the starting rod 210 inthe direction indicated by the arrow S2, while rotating the starting rod210 in the direction indicated by arrow S1. By this operation, theporous body 220 grows on the lower surface of the starting rod 210toward the lower side of the starting rod 210, and finally a porous rod310 (FIG. 3 ) which acts as the center rod is obtained.

In the soot deposition step (type B) by the OVD, the soot depositingdevice also includes a container having at least an exhaust port and asupport mechanism for supporting the mandrel 240 and the porous bodydeposited on the outer periphery thereof. Specifically, the supportmechanism is capable of rotating the mandrel 240 in the directionindicated by the arrow S1, and reciprocates the mandrel 240 in thedirection indicated by the arrow S2 while depositing the porous body onthe outer periphery of the mandrel 240. Thus, the porous body isobtained on the outer periphery of the mandrel 240. Note that, in thecladding portion producing step of step ST90, the core preform 110produced by the core preform producing step is used as the mandrel 240.Further, the device for performing the soot deposition step by the OVDis provided with a burner 230 for depositing a porous body on the outerperiphery of the mandrel 240, and a desired material gas (e.g., GeCl₄,SiCl₄,) including a dopant for adjusting the refractive index, acombustion gas (H₂ and O₂), and a carrier gas such as Ar or He aresupplied to the burner 230 from the gas supply system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the dehydration and sintering step inthe core preform producing step (step ST20) and the dehydration andsintering step in the cladding producing step (step ST90). An apparatusillustrated in FIG. 3 performs dehydration treatment and sinteringtreatment (vitrification to a transparent glass) with the porous rod 310obtained by the soot deposition device illustrated in FIG. 2 beingdeposited inside the apparatus. The apparatus in FIG. 3 includes aheating container 350 provided with a heater 300. The heating container350 has a gas inlet 350A and a gas outlet 350B. A support mechanism isprovided on the upper part of the heating container 350 The supportmechanism rotates the porous rod 310 in a direction indicated by arrowS3 while supporting the porous rod 310 and moves the porous rod 310 in adirection indicated by arrow S4, whereby changing the relative positionof the porous rod 310 with respect to the heater 300.

In the dehydration step of step ST20, the support mechanism first movesthe porous rod 310 in the direction indicated by the arrow S4 whilerotating the porous rod 310 in the direction indicated by the arrow S3,whereby the porous rod 310 is heated by the heater 300. Meanwhile, Hegas and Cl gas are introduced into the heating container 350 from thegas inlet 350A, and the introduced gases are discharged from the gasoutlet 350B. By this step, OH groups in the porous rod 310 are removed.

Subsequently, in the sintering step of step ST20, the support mechanismalso moves the porous rod 310 after the dehydration treatment in thedirection indicated by the arrow S4 while rotating the porous rod 310 inthe direction indicated by the arrow S3, whereby the porous rod 310 isheated by the heater 300. A temperature to heat the porous rod 310 isabout 1,500° C. During heating, only He gas is introduced into theheating container 350 from the gas inlet 350A, and the introduced He gasis discharged from the gas outlet 350B. By this step, a transparentglass rod 320A is obtained.

The transparent glass rod 320A having an outer diameter R, obtained bythe sintering step described above, is annealed by an annealingapparatus illustrated in FIG. 4 before doping an alkali metal (stepST40: first annealing treatment). The annealing apparatus in FIG. 4includes a heating container 400 provided with a heater 410. The heatingcontainer 400 has a gas inlet 400A for supplying only N₂ gas (anatmosphere not containing He gas) and an exhaust port 400B forexhausting N₂ gas. Further, a thermometer 420 is installed in theheating container 400, and a temperature control unit 430 controls theheating temperature of the heater 410 to manage the temperature (set to1,050° C.) in the heating container 400. Note that the first annealingtreatment by the temperature control unit 430 is performed for theannealing time determined with reference to the result data 700 in stepST30.

In the doping step performed after the first annealing treatment of stepST40, the transparent glass rod after the first annealing treatment iselongated so as to have a predetermined outer diameter. Subsequently, ahole is formed in the center region of the stretched transparent glassrod along the longitudinal direction of the transparent glass rod. FIG.5 illustrates a doping step in which the alkali metal is doped to thetransparent glass rod 500 in which a hole 510 is formed by the CVDmethod.

Specifically, in the alkali metal doping of step ST60, potassium (K) isdoped as the alkali metal to the inner surface of the hole 510 providedin the transparent glass rod 500. Potassium bromide (KBr) is used as araw material (KBr vapor is generated by heating KBr by an external heatsource). The transparent glass rod 500 is externally heated by a burner(oxyhydrogen burner) 520 while introducing KBr vapor into the hole 510of the transparent glass rod 500 using oxygen as a carrier gas. Duringthe heating by the burner 520, the transparent glass rod 500 is rotatedin a direction indicated by arrow S5, and the burner 520 reciprocatesplural times along the direction indicated by arrow S6. As a result, theelement K is diffused and doped to the inner surface of the hole 510formed in the transparent glass rod 500.

As illustrated in FIG. 6 , the rod-in collapsing in step ST70 includessolidifying the transparent glass rod 500 (step ST71), forming theperipheral core portion around the solidified transparent glass rod(center rod 600) (step ST72), and stretching (step ST73). Specifically,the transparent glass rod 500 doped with the alkali metal in step ST60is solidified in step ST71 to obtain the center rod 600.

Further, in step ST72 of FIG. 6 , the center rod 600 obtained in stepST71 is inserted into an insertion hole 625 formed in a glass tube 620,which is to be formed as the peripheral core portion, in a directionindicated by arrow S8. In the inserted state, the center rod 600 and theglass tube 620 are integrated by heating. Note that the rod-incollapsing in step ST72 may be performed plural times. Further, in stepST73 of FIG. 6 , the integrated rod is stretched to obtain the corepreform 110 having the desired outer diameter. Note that the corepreform 110 is constituted by a center core portion 111 and a peripheralcore portion 112 in which the center core portion 111 is a regioncorresponds to the above-described center rod 600.

In the cladding portion producing step (step ST90) for providing thecladding portion over the outer periphery of the core preform 110produced as described above, the porous body (soot body) is depositedover the outer periphery of the core preform 110 by the type-B, OVDillustrated in FIG. 2 . Subsequently, the obtained porous body issubjected to the dehydration treatment, the sintering treatment (toprovide a transparent glass), and the stretching treatment by theapparatus of FIG. 3 to obtain the optical fiber preform having thepredetermined outer diameter.

The obtained optical fiber preform is subjected to second annealingtreatment (step ST100). The second annealing treatment is also performedby the annealing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 4 , but the annealingtime may be fixed (e.g., 5 hours) regardless of the outer diameter ofthe optical fiber preform. The annealing temperature is about 1,050° C.Therefore, the annealing time of the second annealing treatment may beshorter than the annealing time of the first annealing treatment (stepST60).

FIG. 7 illustrates an optical fiber preform 100 after the secondannealing treatment described above. As illustrated in FIG. 7 , theoptical fiber preform 100 after the second annealing treatment includesthe core preform 110 and a cladding portion 120 provided on the outerperiphery of the core preform 110. Further, the core preform 110includes the center core portion 111 (corresponding to the center rod600 in FIG. 6 ) doped with the alkali metal and the peripheral coreportion 112. In a measuring step of step ST110, a portion 100A of theoptical fiber preform 100 is cut out from the optical fiber preform 100as a sample preform, as illustrated in FIG. 7 . Subsequently, theresidual He-concentration in a region (center core portion 111)corresponding to the center rod of the cut sample preform 100A ismeasured. Further, the measured residual He-concentration is accumulatedto the result data 700 together with the annealing time for the firstannealing treatment determined in step ST30.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of the refractive index distribution ofthe optical fiber preform 100 produced as described above. In theexample of a refractive index distribution 150 illustrated in FIG. 8 ,no impurity for adjusting the refractive index is doped to the coreportion (core preform) 110, but F is doped to the cladding portion 120to set the refractive index of the cladding portion to be lower than therefractive index of the core portion 110.

Further, the result data 700 used in determining the annealing time instep ST30 records, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 9 , arelationship between the annealing time and the residualHe-concentration after the annealing for each outer diameter of thecenter rod (corresponding to the center core portion 111). Further, theresult data 700 is updated continually each time the optical fiberpreform 100 is produced, that is, the measuring step of step ST110 isperformed, by accumulating the annealing time determined in step ST30and actual measured values of the residual He-concentration. Note thatFIG. 9 illustrates the theoretical values (the table ofHe-concentration-to-time depending on the outer diameter of the centerrod R=30 mm) and the actual measurement values of the residualHe-concentration for every annealing time. FIG. 10 is a graph plottingthe table of He-concentration-to-time (theoretical values) of the centerrod having the outer diameter R=30 mm of the result data 700 illustratedin FIG. 9 . Further, in FIG. 10 , the heat treatment time on thehorizontal axis represents the annealing time, and the He-concentrationon the vertical axis represents the residual He-concentration.

Note that, although the result data 700 in FIG. 9 illustrates therelationship between the annealing time and the residualHe-concentration of the center rod having the outer diameter R of 30 mm,the relationship between the annealing time and the outer diameter ofthe center rod is such that the annealing time of the center rod havingthe outer diameter RT (mm) is determined from a known relationshipbetween the annealing time and the residual He-concentration of thecenter rod having a reference outer diameter R (i.e., the table ofHe-concentration-to-time depending on the outer diameter of 30 mm asillustrated in FIG. 9 ). Specifically, assuming that the outer diameterR of the center rod, in which the relationship between the residualHe-concentration C [weight ppm] and the annealing time T [hour] isknown, as a reference outer diameter (thus, the center rod having theouter diameter R is referred to as the reference rod), to control theresidual He-concentration in the center rod having the outer diameter RTto C [weight ppm] or less, it is necessary to anneal the center rodhaving the outer diameter RT (at the annealing temperature of about 900°C. to 1,100° C.) for the annealing time TT (=C×(RT/R)²) which isobtained by multiplying the annealing time T (the annealing timenecessary to control the residual He-concentration of the reference rodto C [weight ppm] or less) by a numerical value (RT/R)² specified by thesquare of the outer diameter ratio (RT/R). Specifically, when thereference outer diameter R is set to 30 mm (example in FIG. 9 ), tocontrol the residual He-concentration of the center rod having the outerdiameter 60 mm to 0.127 [weight ppm] or less, the annealing time (40[hour]) obtained by quadrupling the annealing time of 10 [hour] requiredfor the reference rod (a numerical value defined by the square of theouter diameter ratio 2 (=60 mm/30 mm)) is necessary. In addition,according to the findings of the inventors, if the maximum value ofresidual He-concentration in the center core portion (center rod) 111 isadjusted to 0.15 [weight ppm] or less, the occurrence of spiking duringdrawing of the base metal is effectively prevented and, at this time,the Cl-concentration in the center core portion 111 is 1,000 ppm orless. Therefore, as can be seen from FIGS. 9 and 10 , the annealing timein the first annealing treatment step (step ST40) performed on thecenter rod having the outer diameter of 30 mm needs to be at least 7.5hours.

The optical fiber can be obtained by drawing the optical fiber preform100 produced as described above. Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 11, one end of the optical fiber preform 100 is drawn in the directionindicated by arrow S9, while being heated by the heater 900, whereby theoptical fiber having a refractive index distribution similar to thatillustrated in FIG. 8 is obtained.

From the above description of the present invention, it is apparent thatthe present invention can be modified in various ways. Suchmodifications cannot be construed as departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention, and modifications obvious to those skilled in the artare intended to be included within the scope of the following claims

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

100 . . . Optical fiber preform; 110 . . . Core preform (core portion);111, 600 . . . Center rod (center core portion); 112 . . . Peripheralcore portion; 120 . . . Cladding portion; 230, 520 . . . Burner; 410,900 . . . Heater; 420 . . . Thermometer; 430 . . . Temperature controlunit; and 700 . . . Result data (including table ofHe-concentration-to-time).

1. A method for producing an optical fiber preform including a corepreform having a center rod with an alkali metal doped region formedalong a longitudinal direction and mainly comprised of silica glass, anda cladding portion provided on an outer periphery of the core preformand mainly comprised of silica glass, the method comprising: (1) a corepreform producing step including: a rod producing step of producing atransparent glass rod configured to be the center rod and having apredetermined diameter, the transparent glass rod being obtained bydehydration treatment of a porous rod with glass fine particlesdeposited along the longitudinal direction in an atmosphere containingCl gas, and by sintering treatment of the porous rod after thedehydration treatment in an atmosphere containing He gas; a doping stepof doping the alkali metal into the transparent glass rod along thelongitudinal direction; and a diameter expanding step of forming aperipheral core portion on the outer periphery of the center rodobtained by the doping step; (2) a cladding portion producing step offorming the cladding portion on the outer periphery of the core preformobtained by the core preform producing step; and (3) a measuring step ofmeasuring a residual He-concentration in a region corresponding to thecenter rod in a sample preform cut out from the optical fiber preformobtained by the cladding portion producing step, wherein the corepreform producing step includes: as a step to be performed between therod producing step and the doping step, an annealing time determiningstep of determining time taken for annealing treatment of thetransparent glass rod by referring to result data including a tableindicating a relationship between the annealing time and the residualHe-concentration, the relationship depending on a specific outerdiameter of the transparent glass rod; and a first annealing treatmentstep of annealing the transparent glass rod in an atmosphere notcontaining the He gas at least for the determined annealing time, andthe measuring step updates the result data by accumulating the annealingtime determined by the annealing time determining step and the measuredresidual He-concentration, as treatment result for each outer diameterof the transparent glass rod annealed in the first annealing treatmentstep.
 2. The method for producing the optical fiber preform according toclaim 1, further comprising a second annealing treatment step, betweenthe cladding portion producing step and the measuring step, of annealingthe optical fiber preform obtained by the cladding portion producingstep for predetermined time in the atmosphere not containing He gas. 3.The method for producing the optical fiber preform according to claim 2,wherein the annealing time of the first annealing treatment step islonger than the annealing time of the second annealing treatment step.4. (canceled)